Netflix UK picks up Lilyhammer

Netflix has picked up streaming rights in the UK and Ireland for Lilyhammer, the Norwegian comedy drama starring Steven Van Zandt that spearheaded the VoD service’s original programming strategy.

Lilyhammer (8×45′) is already available on the platform in the US, Canada and Latin America and it will now be offered to viewers in the UK and Ireland, after Netflix extended its deal with the show’s German distributor SevenOne International.

The series will become available to subscribers after it airs on UK diginet BBC4, which picked up broadcast rights to the show in February.

The BBC also has seven-day online catch-up rights, which will allow the public broadcaster to screen each episode for a limited time on its own free VoD service, the BBC iPlayer.

Lilyhammer, which tells the story of a New York mobster who moves to the Norwegian town of Lillehammer after going into a witness protection programme, broke viewing records when it launched on Norwegian public broadcaster NRK in January.

The series is produced by Norway’s Rubicon, while Netflix will coproduce the second season.